


Open Doors

by Medie



Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-28
Updated: 2011-04-28
Packaged: 2017-10-18 18:21:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,033
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/191855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hotch had been prepared for a lot of things in the BAU, but not Daniela Rossi.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Open Doors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [weaselett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/weaselett/gifts).



> written for weaselett's prompt of 'Hotch/Rossi - black shirt' for my kissing drabble

He walked in on her once. Danni's always been the one to flout the rules, mock authority, kick back with her short skirts, black shirts, and ever-present coffee mug, grinning at Gideon or Max as she blew through their theories. He'd been prepared for a lot of things in the BAU, but not Daniela Rossi.

No one's ever prepared for that, not even supposedly jaded prosecutors turned profilers who walk in on their senior agent getting fucked in her office. Aaron never could forget the sounds she'd made in thirty seconds before his brain caught up with his eyes and made him backpedal out. Couldn't stop them from invading his dreams, accompanied by the image of her thick dark hair spilling across the desk and her slick, red-painted lips parting to gasp a name that, in those dreams, always became his.

Part and parcel of the job, he'd told himself then. Which, mostly, was true. Working close quarters under stressful conditions, Danni hadn't been the first, or last, coworker he'd dreamt about. She's just the only one he keeps dreaming about and the only one Haley ever wondered about.

"Stop that." Settling in across from him, bottle and glasses in hand, Danni offers a sly wink. "You know the rules."

Aaron grins, leaning forward to take the glass. "Stop what?"

"The ex. This is supposed to be an ex-free zone. You start mooning over Haley and then I have to start—" she stops, grinning. "Right, I don't moon."

He catches the glimmer of mischief a second before those lips part and tips a look over the rim of his glass. "Don't even _think_ about it, Danni."

She chuckles, nodding. "I'll be good." She waits a beat, just long enough for him to catch her train of thought and groan, before laughing. " _Exactly_."

He shakes his head, but he's still laughing with her. He can't help himself. Danni's laughter is always irresistible, rich, warm, and just dirty enough to be naughty. "I'm not sure who's worse—you or Garcia."

"Me, by virtue of a few decades more practice," Danni refills her glass, then his. "Give her a few years, though, and Penelope'll catch up in fine style. You almost did."

"Almost?" he says. "I think I should be offended by that."

"You just can't quite let the boyscout go, which is fine. One of us has to be the responsible one." She winks. "Lord knows, it was never going to be me."

"I don't know about that," Aaron says. "As I recall, you did this job pretty well." He looks at the glass in his hand and then the woman across from him. Back when it was Jason in his place. The thought makes him stop and wonder. As far as he knows, he's the only member of the unit Danni ever kept up with. The fault lines in the unit had run deep even before she'd left. "Mostly."

She smirks into her glass. "I wonder if Gideon's forgiven me yet."

"For all the brush-fires he had to put out?" Aaron grins. "Probably not."

Danni laughs again. "True, he hated the politics worse than I did." Kicking back in her chair, she closes her eyes. He watches the rise and fall of her chest, lets his eyes trace the line of her neck, and generally indulges himself in just looking at her. With only a few traces of silver in the black of her hair, she doesn't look so different than she did all those years ago. She's still wearing that damn black shirt.

It's close enough that he can feel himself reacting.

"I saw you, you know," she says, startling him.

"I'm sorry?" he says, trying to sound calm, but the words stutter out of him anyway.

Opening her eyes, she turns her head. "It was a Friday. I stayed late working on a few reports, Ian dropped by with coffee, and, well, one thing led to another." She smiles. "I didn't even know you were still in the office. Not until you walked in the door."

He's blushing. It's been a decade, more than, and he's blushing. "I saw the light on. I wanted to ask you a question."

"And, instead, you got an eyeful." Danni puts her glass on his desk, standing in the same motion. "My bad." She looks out at the bullpen, at the empty desks and the clutter filling every spare corner. "We're a long way from that basement now."

"But not that far at all."

She tips a look over her shoulder. "Smooth, Hotchner. _Smooth_. Been practising that one long?"

"Not at all," he says, leaning forward. "Just the last thirty seconds, or so."

"You never said a word about it." Turning around, Danni looks at him, suddenly serious. "Not once. It was grossly unprofessional, Aaron. You should--"

"Have done nothing differently." He should have. Aaron's had years to think it through. Analyze his reaction versus regulations and his conclusion has varied over the years, but it all comes down to the same thing, "If I had, you probably wouldn't be here right now and the team needs you."

She looks at him for a long moment, then doubles over, laughing. It's not quite the reaction he's expecting, but then, neither is the way she closes the distance between them and bends down to kiss him.

It's so many levels of wrong, but that doesn't stop him from surging up out of the chair and into the kiss. Doesn't stop him from doing that or from lifting her up onto his desk, stepping between her legs as the kiss deepens and she hooks thumbs into his belt loops and pulls him closer still.

"So," he says, when her lipstick's a mess and her fingers have migrated to his back pockets, pressing into him just enough to make him squirm, "What was that about?"

"The _team_ needs me?" Danni shakes her head. "Lines like that, Aaron, you're lucky I'm easy."

If she were anyone else, he might argue, but she isn't. Arguing with Daniela Rossi must be done carefully. He'll worry about that later. For now, Aaron settles for kissing her again.

...after locking the door, of course.


End file.
